Mobile and smart phone devices comprise a group of electronic equipment which are now considered a necessity in today's technologically driven society. People in all walks of life use these devices for conversing with other device users as well as for a variety of other forms of communication e.g., texts, pictures, e-mail, and accessing the internet. While utilizing such devices, maintaining a suitable hands-free conversation can be a strain on a user's head and neck. This strain is often the result of the user pinching the device between his or her neck and the shoulder in an effort free up one or both hands to manipulate the controls or a writing implement, amongst other numerous activities which require a free hand.
Furthermore, such a contortion of the user's body may cause accidental and undesirable dropping of the device and/or the temporary abandonment of the activity which required the use of a free hand(s). Additionally, propping the device between the neck and shoulder may also impede the ability of an ambulatory user to avoid a collision with other people or structural impediments since the user's vision may become misdirected due to the angle of the user's head. It is therefore also desirable to create a device that may keep a user of such a device's head in a direction which comports with the user's path of travel and line of sight.
Various attempts have been made to solve problems found in mobile phone holder art. Among these are found in: U.S. Pat. And U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 6,535,606 to James Cox, 2012/0046083 to Keven H. Klett, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,668,869 to Raphael Zinno. These prior art references are representative of shoulder rests for mobile phones.
None of the above referenced inventions and patents are collapsible and taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the invention as claimed. Thus, a need exists for a reliable and collapsible shoulder rest for a piece of portable electronic equipment to avoid the above-mentioned problems.